Thursday, October 27, 2011

The mess that is the Socialist Republic of India

In India just about everything is controlled ('regulated') by a power mad and grasping elite that wrings and squeezes us painfully to mold us to the grotesque shape of their social engineering blueprints and then extorts us to relieve that pain just a little bit. Regulation creates corruption.The venal State feeds off it. We are supposed to accept, nay admire it is because it done in the name of poor, compassion, welfare, children....

This article in WSJ reminds us of the oppressive control of land by the State that is destroying property and property owners and creating general misery. Much like most things done by the Socialist Republic of India.

Land is increasingly the focus of political battles in India. Farmers have long complained that local governments seize their land and sell it to companies on the cheap.

And-

India's local governments use—and abuse—the power to take land by eminent domain with little compensation and transfer it to industry. Any genuine effort at land reform would start by limiting these powers.

To its credit, the government is finally trying to narrow the scope of such takings. In practice, however, the demand for land is such that the bill's obstructions may force more buyers to look to local governments for help, inevitably resulting in more cronyism. Real estate is already the source of much of India's corruption due to a welter of regulations that give officials huge discretionary power.

And-

These rules effectively weaken India's already feeble property rights. India stripped property of its core constitutional protection in 1978. It has also invested little in the process of registering land titles, which has spawned mafias that make a living by usurping deeds.